.CO versus .COM

[Helen Kopp]

Hi! I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts about the validity of
a .co domain? Obviously .com is preferable, but from an SEO and
lasting standpoint, would it be wise to opt for .co if .com is
unavailable? Thanks in advance for any feedback! --Helen

[Kevin Mahoney]

What country is your target audience?  

I don't believe it has a big effect in terms of SEO, but I cannot speak any empirical evidence to that at the moment; however, I would think that *.co would be more familiar to European audiences and thus speak fairly well to that audience in particular.  Either way, I don't believe the domain suffix would directly affect SEO as long as it was a domain name with a commonly-used domain name suffix.  I am still very used to seeing *.co.uk for example rather than .com.  The only effect on SEO I could see would be indirect through users' trust of a more common domain name suffix and their subsequent preference for visiting a site that ends in example.co.uk or example.co rather than say example.hu, especially if it's an e-commerce site.  That trust could ultimately impact linking to your site and thus how its placed within search engines that take link-backs into account.

I'd love to hear others on this... it's an intriguing question that I admit I've never really researched thoroughly... I've mostly just operated off of a felt sense when deciding domain name suffixes.

-Kevin

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[Helen Kopp]

Yep - I agree with you totally. Like .ME and some others, .CO is as
of recent being marketed because it looks like "company." I don't
necessarily have a problem with that. I like it more than .net and
definitely more than .biz. If we're going on gut feelings here, my
gut tells me it looks right so it might just catch on... Though I
wonder if its sites will tend towards second tier, if they can't
afford .com as competition for those spots increases over the years...

Thanks for your response.

On Feb 16, 1:31 pm, Kevin Mahoney <kabo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What country is your target audience?
>
> I don't believe it has a big effect in terms of SEO, but I cannot speak
> any empirical evidence to that at the moment; however, I would think that
> *.co would be more familiar to European audiences and thus speak fairly well
> to that audience in particular.  Either way, I don't believe the domain
> suffix would directly affect SEO as long as it was a domain name with a
> commonly-used domain name suffix.  I am still very used to seeing

> *.co.ukfor example rather than .com.  The only effect on SEO I could

[Daniel Goddard | London Websites]

Helen,

There was a lot of hype surrounding .co when it first came out, but that hype (and the inflated domain registration prices) has long since died down.

I've yet to see the long-term merits of .co domains.

Dan